§ Lord Aveburyasked Her Majesty's Government:
What human rights concerns the European Union Troika raised during its recent visit to Algeria; and, in particular, whether they asked the Algerian authorities to respond to the request for an invitation to visit Algeria originally made by the United Nations Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary and Arbitrary Executions on 15 January 1999. [HL4677]
§ Baroness AmosThe UK and our EU partners regularly raise with the Algerian Government our concerns about human rights violations in Algeria. The then FCO Minister my honourable friend the Member for Exeter did so during his visit to Algiers in September 2001. We continue to urge Algeria to comply fully with all its obligations under international human rights law, including the 119WA investigation of human rights violations, and to allow visits by Special Rapporteurs. The EU Troika did not specifically raise during its recent visit the request to visit Algeria made by the Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary and Arbitrary Executions. The EU mission did press the Algerian authorities for a response to the list of the "disappeared" which had been sent by the Presidency in April 2001 and which was also raised by the Presidency in December 2001.